Talk by Susana Martinez-Conde of the Barrow Neurological Institute, Phoenix, Arizona. Given on March 25, 2009 to the Redwood Center for Theoretical Neuroscience at UC Berkeley.
Abstract. A large part of our visual experience is driven by the eye movements we produce while we fixate our gaze. Therefore the perception and physiology of fixational eye movements are critical to our general understanding of vision. Moreover, because we are not aware of our fixational eye movements, they can also help us understand the underpinnings of visual awareness. I will present findings on the neural activity generated by fixational microsaccades -the fastest and largest type of fixational eye movement - in visual neurons, as well as on the consequences of microsaccades for visual perception.
